We observe the transition of
Fernando Ureña Rib from a testimonial figurative Art to a
surrealistic neo-abstraction Art.
The first method is both prudent and ambitious (never a brusque
rupture.) It is a measured experimental boldness absorbed in the
next phase. Thus, around 1986, the artist began to reinvent the
World of elements, forms and colors fully revealed towards the end
of the following year. His exhibition entitled Intima produced a
singular impact. Throughout this period of gestation Fernando Ureña
Rib appeared to remain faithful to the vibrant, figurative, oniric
quality of his human subject and to the expression of growth,
expansion and fertility in his vegetal themes.
Here we sense the throb of the "Tropic" (Title of another one of his
shows) and it climatic effects on both man and nature.
The poetic texts that introduce his catalogues- poetry is the
"Violin de Ingres" of the artist-, among the emotive phrases of
anecdotes we find the hidden key to diverse combinations, organized
and harmonious, always more committed to imaginary transmutations.
In Tropico (April 1996) Ureña Rib says: "One begins to see the
mirage, those reverberations of heat which now melt the images and
convert them into a volatile, evanescent chromatic shape."
And later (Celajes, November 1996) "The river multiplied and divided
the last colors of the afternoon and was converted into an enormous
kaleidoscope of liquid and phosphorescent metals." While George
Arzeno Brugal justly observed, more directly: " Simultaneously, many
of his paintings take up once more the ancient theme of reflecting
movement and the displacements of bodies in space."
Through the real imaginary, the painter intensifies, idealizes and
converts life into a kingdom o f contemplation; a celebration of the
harmony superior to which we live every day. The depth of
simultaneities, rhythms, sequences elaborated by Fernando Ureña Rib,
and translate the complex interiors of the soul and the many
ephemeral impressions that flow in our perception and psychological
reactions.
Marianne Tolentino
President of Dominican Art Critic Association
